Peace Through Education: Stealing the Light

Filmmaker Aimie Burns's documentary presents the alternately hopeful and heartbreaking message of Afghan émigré and education advocate Mohammad Khan Kharoti, who is determined to uplift his native land through schooling. Kharoti himself began first grade at the age of 12, when a school was built in his village of Shin Kalay in Helmand Province; he later went on to become a college student in the U.S. and then a physician. After Kharoti settled in Oregon and began practicing nuclear medicine in Portland, some of his patients learned about his “second job”—helping educate a handful of children in his brother's house in Shin Kalay. These patients used their fundraising and organizing skills to aid Kharoti in building a school in the community of Shin Kalay, using donated land, equipment, and labor. Peace Through Education shows the construction process and later visits the happy enrollees—which would include 400 girls out of a total of 1,200 students, when enrollment reached its peak. In 2008, however, armed men with machinery came into Shin Kalay and demolished the structure—an episode captured on video. Khan does not know who was responsible—it could have been the Taliban—but he has since received permission to rebuild. Meanwhile, some youngsters are being educated (boys at a mosque and girls in private homes) while the builders wait for the political situation to stabilize. Despite Afghanistan's decades-long state of war, Kharoti's story is an uplifting account of how one person's passion can make a difference and offer a glimmer of hope. As Kharoti puts it, “The biggest enemy of Afghanistan is illiteracy.” Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Gardner)